I have a GSM phone. It's reception in toronto varies from good, to craptastic. The demand for the GSM phone was way beyond what rogers expected, (as per a roger's employee), so the network is totally overburdened. At the same time, she was told that within a year, and this was about 6-9 months ago, that the network would see considerable improvements.

GSM is supposed to be the better technology, but unless the network is there to support it, it won't matter. I personally would go with the GSM phone. The network will only get better with time. I've noticed some improvement, but the dead areas are still dead. IE at my home I get pretty much no reception. That hasn't changed since I got there almost a year ago.

But downtown seems stronger. Could be wishful thinking though.

Thanks

Posted by kris on Dec 24, 2003

Thanks for the advice. I'm still a little sceptical on whether or not I should invest money into a phone that will not receive as good reception as the analogue phone would. Especially since its taken so long to get a good signal going...

I heard that there are phones that are GSM and analogue together. Is that true? If so, how does that work?

Dual band

Posted by Nerhael on Dec 25, 2003

I think those exist, I know that back when they first came out with digital, you could get phones that did both, they were just bigger.

They would try digital, and if no signal, would try on analogue. I would imagine that you can do the same thing with GSM and analogue. Would likely just cost a bit more. Would definitely give you a larger reception range.

one more problem....

Posted by kris on Dec 25, 2003

Okay, so my decision is made. I'm gonna go with the GSM. Now the problem is whether or not I should stick with Rogers. I've been hearing a lot of great things about Telus, Fido, and Bell.

Do you even think that it matters whether or not I switch companies?

Who do you think has the best to offer? (prices, plans, networks, customer service)

Um...

Posted by Nerhael on Dec 27, 2003

Far as I know, rogers network size wins hands-down. I don't know anyone using bell or fido, and the people that use Telus seem relatively impressed with it.

The rest I don't really know.

Network size

Posted by phduffy on Dec 28, 2003

I worked for a cellular company a year ago, and we were responsible for putting up all the Towers that make the network. So this info is a year old, but it's like this:

Bell, Rogers and Telus all have pretty much the exact same coverage. THey're all well over 90%. Telus started out West, and has like 100% coverage out there.

Fido has slightly lower coverage, but it won't make a difference if you're in any decent sized centre. If you travel to remote areas alot maybe think about Bell.